Artificial intelligence pervasive, here to stay, speaker tells educators, employers

By Buzz Trexler

Star Correspondent

JONESBOROUGH – About 100 people from the East Tennessee business, educational, governmental, and economic development sectors gathered Wednesday at Grace Meadows Farm for the 7 th Annual Education 2 Employment Summit to hear about workforce challenges and opportunities, from artificial intelligence (AI) to Gen Z.

First Tennessee Development District Director of Workforce and Literacy Initiatives Lottie Ryans, who led the program, said 200 people registered for the event with only 25 no-shows. “I think the content and engagement were spot-on and I have gotten tremendous feedback from folks already,” Ryans said.

Elizabethton Chamber of Commerce Director Joy McCray was also pleased with this year’s summit. “This is the fourth year we’ve participated in this regional event and it’s a great opportunity for our community to learn from one another as well as our experts in the program,” McCray said Thursday.

While human resources were evident throughout the morning in the form of culinary arts and presentation of information, the challenges and opportunities presented by artificial intelligence led the way.

Dr. Lynne E. Parker, associate vice chancellor emerita of The University of Tennessee and founding director of the AI Tennessee Initiative, said artificial intelligence seems scary to some people but the technology is pervasive and here to stay.

“This is not something that you can ignore for a while and hope it will go away,” she said. “It’s not going to go away.”

Parker, who led AI policy efforts for four years in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and was the founding director of the National AI Initiative Office, said, “AI is, and will continue to be, an economic workforce disrupter.” Still, she said, those who can leverage AI will be the ones who can thrive in their jobs, while educators and employers can prepare workers to do so.”

Parker gave a “high-level illustration” of generative AI, which can create text, images, video, audio, code, and other media based on training data. She said AI is quickly becoming an “everyday tool” because it is accessible, user-friendly, and trained on a vast base of knowledge, enabling the technology to generate “expert human-like content.”

AI will disrupt every industry in the state and nation, Parker said in her presentation, pointing to a national economic impact of $1.8 trillion. Research predicted more than 500,000 Tennessee jobs will be “augmented or replaced by AI.” Parker said a study showed AI will impact most of the key economic sectors in the state, notably forestry, agriculture, manufacturing and materials, transportation and logistics, health, energy, IT, and hospitality and entertainment.

AI is “highly capable,” Parker said, and educators and employers need to adapt to the fast-changing technology and not be afraid to embrace what will be a lifelong learning experience, prepare the workforce for that same experience, and implement the tools.

“I think as employers and educators, we can do this by providing lots of different kinds of opportunities,” Parker said. “Different career pathways will require different levels of AI staffing. A small percentage, like 1 percent, will be the AI visionaries in the future.”

The size of the AI market is growing, she said, with about 75 percent of companies planning to adapt to the technology in the next few years. About 50 percent of the tasks being done manually are expected to be automated within the next decade.

“It’s helpful to note that this is a trend that’s been going on for many years,” Parker said. “Our economy has been reactive to technology changes for many, many years.” Research from Goldman Sachs revealed that 85 percent of the employment growth in the U.S. over the last 80 years was due to technology creation, and 60 percent of today’s workers are in occupations that did not exist in 1940.

“So, as an economy, this is not new, but the pace of change is fast,” she said. “It feels pretty fast.”

A panel of Gen Z workers moderated by McCray talked about what their generation brings to the workforce, including an ability to adapt to changes like AI.

“We’re very flexible and we’ve had a lot of things like COVID in our childhood and were able to adapt to that really easily. So, I think that’s a really good thing that we’re able to do now,” said Layken Andies, a Science Hill High School sophomore who volunteered during the summer to help with the Education to Employment Summit. “I really think that we’re really good at utilizing tools like AI and certain software that will make our work easier and more efficient, too.”

Also on the panel were:

— Grace Turner, an East Tennessee State University senior who is completing her bachelor’s in business administration degree in marketing and management; and

— Elijah Stines, a Unaka High School senior who is active in SkilledUSA. Stines is a champion collision repair technician, earning regional, state, and national recognition for his skills.

Breakfast and lunch were prepared by the culinary programs of Elizabethton High School, Science Hill High School, Unicoi High School, and West Ridge High School. The colors were presented by the Daniel Boone High School Marine Corps ROTC.

Panel discussions also included remote work, business recruitment, and human resources and other speakers and panelists included Charles G. Chuck Carter, director of schools for Sullivan County; Carolyn C. Fittz, corporate vice president of human resources for Unaka Co., Greeneville; Liz Haselsteiner, coordinator for experiential learning at ETSU; Shannon Clark, remote experience manager at BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee; Tommy Greer, partner at Blackburn, Childers, and Steagall, PLC; Alicia Summers, Johnson City economic development director; Clay Walker, CEO of NETWORKS Sullivan Partnership; Jeff Taylor, president and CEO of Greene County Partnership; Rhonda Reeves, regional director of human resources for Ballad Health; and Seth Rhoton, districtwide work-based learning coordinator for Hawkins County Schools.

The summit was sponsored by the Bristol Tennessee/Virginia Chamber of Commerce, Elizabethton Chamber of Commerce, Greene County Partnership, Johnson City Chamber, Kingsport Chamber, NETWORKS Sullivan Partnership, NETN HUB, Washington County Economic Development Council, and First Tennessee Development District.

The First Tennessee Development District was formed in 1966 as a result of legislation passed by the Tennessee General Assembly. It is one of nine regional organizations in the state that carries out general and comprehensive planning and development activities for local governments. The mayors from the eight counties and 20 municipalities that comprise the district, as well as industrial and legislative representatives, serve on the board of directors and provide direction to the staff as they serve the region through planning, coordination and technical assistance.

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